Dave Rosenkrance, manager of the BLM’s Challis field office, listed several reasons for canceling the permit in his five-page decision, including loss of control over the base ranch property, failure to maintain range improvements and making false statements on grazing applications. Also, the permit has not been used for livestock grazing as required, he said.

WWP manages the 432-acre Greenfire Preserve and its grazing allotments – Spud Creek, Bradshaw Basin and Thompson Creek – for conservation purposes for Greenfire’s owner, Seattle-area conservationist Gordon Younger and Valley Sun LLC.

WWP Executive Director Jon Marvel has protested the proposed January 29 cancellation.

Loss of control

Valley Sun has lost control of the grazing permit and base property, since WWP manages Greenfire by a conservation agreement, Rosenkrance wrote, adding the Code of Federal Regulations allows permits or leases to be terminated if the permittee or lessee loses ownership or control of the base property

BLM is discriminating against Valley Sun and its manager WWP, Marvel contends, and is favoring area ranchers. He notes that ranch owners often hire managers to see to the day-to-day workings of their base properties but the agency has not cancelled their associated grazing permits for loss of control.

Range improvements

Valley Sun has not maintained range improvements as required, Rosenkrance said.

That’s because improvements such as springs and watering troughs are in such bad condition that they are beyond repair and need to be replaced, not maintained, Marvel argued. Some springs have dried up. Also, the allotment management plan states springhead maintenance is the BLM’s responsibility.

Non-use

Valley Sun “has shown no indication of actually using the grazing permit for livestock grazing use” as required by the Taylor Grazing Act, Rosenkrance wrote.

While the Taylor Grazing Act was enacted to provide for orderly use and to stabilize the livestock industry as Rosenkrance emphasizes, it was also adopted to stop injury to the public grazing lands by preventing overgrazing and soil deterioration, Marvel noted.

As evidence for Valley Sun’s intention not to graze cattle, Rosenkrance wrote that between 2001 and 2009 the group applied for non-use of the permit. For several of those years, Valley Sun said it was in the process of acquiring livestock and wished to designate non-use for conservation purposes.

Livestock can be purchased every Friday at the Blackfoot auction, Rosenkrance told The Challis Messenger, so it shouldn’t have taken the group years to buy cattle.

“Since WWP began management of the property, more than 50,000 acres of public-lands grazing allotments associated with the Preserve have been closed to livestock grazing,” he wrote.

A local rancher, who shares the Bradshaw Basin allotment with Valley Sun, has not grazed cattle on it for years, Marvel notes, but BLM has not taken any action against him.

“The decision is overtly discriminatory against Valley Sun,” Marvel wrote. “We are aware of many grazing allotments on the Challis BLM Field Office, as well as on other Field Offices of the BLM around the rest of the state, that are rested from livestock grazing for years. And yet those permits have not been revoked for lack of use.”

WWP was attempting to protect stream banks from erosion and streams from sedimentation caused by overgrazing cattle, Marvel wrote.

BLM’s own Challis Resource Management Plan (RMP) broadly determines the allotments as available for grazing, but also provides that the agency shall allocate nonuse for “watershed protection, wildlife habitat, plant maintenance and improvement of ecological condition to meet related allotment objectives,” Marvel wrote.

The BLM has failed to act consistently with its sensitive species, wildlife and riparian (steam habitat) provisions in the Challis RMP, which notes that degraded riparian areas may need complete rest from livestock grazing to recover, Marvel contends.

False statements

Valley Sun, LLC has “knowingly or willfully made false statements or representation

in grazing applications,” Rosenkrance wrote.

“Valley Sun, LLC and WWP have provided BLM with baffling, contradictory and apparently false statements. I can only conclude that Valley Sun, LLC never intended to purchase livestock to activate their permit, and that WWP – not Valley Sun LLC – is the day-to day-manager.”

Marvel countered in his 15-plus page protest that Rosenkrance’s proposed cancellation is “pernicious, overtly discriminatory and contains numerous false, libelous and defamatory statements. In addition, it is a dereliction of your duties to be a steward for all resources on the public lands – not just your preferred use, livestock grazing.

“Your animosity towards Valley Sun, LLC and Western Watersheds Project and your favoritism towards the livestock industry appears to know no bounds,” Marvel wrote. “Valley Sun can only guess that your animosity comes from a desire to retaliate against WWP for successfully challenging so many of your decisions over the years.”

Each side accuses the other of ignoring letters, requests for meetings and other communications over the years.

After reviewing Marvel’s February 16 protest, Rosenkrance can either let his proposed decision stand or issue a final decision, which Valley Sun can then appeal to an administrative law judge, the Department of the Interior’s Board of Land Appeals or to federal district court.